Finally my mojo is back (and I'm skint)

After killing my sewing machine AGAIN last week (thank goodness it was only £25), rumour was there was a bounty hunter after me for 4 needless slaughters of machines! Coupled with the fact that my mojo up and went (probably travelling round warmer climes!) after I produced some cards that were SO ugly they went in the recycling bin and a bag charm I made my mum that just didnt look right, add to this tooth ache (STILL havent plucked up the courage to have it pulled out as the dentist suggested, I will, I just have to work up to it!!) and some other bits and pieces I had just about had enough (my poor OH, what he has to put up with! The sewing machine nearly landed on him as he walked through the door last Friday!). But, my mojo is back-I managed to make several cards in one night...look!
During the week I girded my loins and went to a new crafting night at the local Cath Kidson shop. They run craft classes for free a couple of times a month, so I thought even though I didn't know anyone I decided to go along, and I am so glad I did. This week they were making egg cosies. The other ladies made some lovely ones decorated with flowers, gems etc....me? Well, what did you expect?
Yep,a mexican day of the dead skull!

They were also making drawstring bags, or as we say in the west country,Dap bags!. I ran out of time so brought the fabric and ribbon home to make it.....

Dah-dah!
"How did I make it?" I hear you cry? Well, that'll be on my new sewing machine.......Yep, I decided 4 killings were not enough!! I bought it 2nd hand from a great shop in town and they will throw in a free lesson in using it after Easter-its electronic and has several stitches-I love my new machine! I used it for the first time today to make this bag. I have even managed to change the thread colour-basic I know, but for me that is good!!
Look, Isn't it beautiful...
Fingers crossed it lasts my a LONG time (as it cost me a lot of money).

A few weeks ago I made my Nan a birthday pressie of a scrap book of photos of my nan (and departed grand dad) and me as I grew up. I couldn't post a photo before in case my nan looked at this blog-but she has opened her gift now so the coast is clear!
Boy, did it bring back memories making it, and a few tears.
I have also made a tag book for my pen friend in NYC (we became pen friends in our early teens and have stayed good friends ever since) of his vist more than 20 years ago!! Hopefully Josh would have received it by now so I am taking the gamble and posting a photo...
And then I have made one final card with one of my new stamps from Crafty Individuals, I hope you like it.Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge

A sad day

Well, Saturday night saw the 10th Anniversary of 'Trailer Park Trash' gigs that my OH has put on in our 2 closest cities, and sadly, this is the last one! After ten years of stress, punk and rock and roll he has decided enough is enough (blast the credit crunch) and he will leave the promoting to someone else. Its was a great gig and brings to an end an era of both Trailer Park Trash and The Junction:

Hacksaw kicked off the night-including some of their well known hits (well in the west country at least) such as 'Go Bath City Go' (the Bath City FC theme tune) and as you can see in this photo 'Bog Roll' where packs of loo rolls are thrown into the crowd and then thown back!!

The were followed by the fantastic punk band 'The Setbacks' (well with my husband and brother-in-law both in the band I may be a tad bias)

Then followed the Cheater Slicks a powerful rockabilly trio, then onto the main act, Dragster with front woman Fi giving it her all as usual.

Someone asked me last night what I would do with my OH home more-I dont think there is any danger of that, what with him being in 2 bands (which gives me lots of time to craft!!)

Talking of which, I managed to make a good luck card today for a colleague who is leaving. She is into her gardens, painting and jewelry so I used some seed beads and wire on the card and lots of flowers. I hope they like it at work.I also started making my first tag book of a few photos I have from 20 years ago when my pen friend from the USA visited. We are still in contact (hello Josh) so I wont post a photo of the make on here until I have sent it-boy making it is bringing back the memories (and really dodgy clothes and haircuts-what was I thinking!!).

Happy Crafting
Li'l Pidge

blackbird I'll 'ave 'e

Hurrah! 2 years ago a blackbird nested in our tree in the back garden, boo! Neighbours cat killed all the young birds (you can buy mole traps, rat traps why not cat traps? Humane of course, what with me being an animal loving veggie)-so this year we prepared ourselves and made a chicken wire balcony-type thing under the nest to try and stop the cat. A very quick look yesterday and there are eggs! Woo-Hoo!!

When the female blackbird has flown off for a bit I will try and take some photo's as the eggs are a beautiful speckled blue/green-so pretty.

Anyhoo, sunny day again (I could so get used to this) so off out...

Happy Crafting
Li'l Pidge

A bird house for the soul and some sublime stitching

What a change in the weather-sunny all week and warm-how lovely! This spurred me on to get cracking with some crafts. First I made this bird house with a removable lid for my mum. Its a pringle tube! I covered the tub in torn pages and then after inking it with Tim Holtz distressed inks I covered it with glue and tissue paper which I inked again and stamped birds on with stayz on. I added a cocktail stick as a perch and added a bird ornament. Of course, to make it, I needed to eat the contents-shame! But I think it was worth it, I hope you do.I also decided to have a go at some embroidery using an iron on stencil from my sublime stitches design book my OH bought for my birthday. The shirt is £2.50 from Asda, but I think it now looks really cool. When I go to london shopping for rockabilly clothes, shirts with a bit of retro stitching (and sometimes just a transfer) can set you back around £40, so I think I got myself a bargain!
I also received my Feb ATC's from the ladies on the CB Forum-arent they lush!
Last week also saw me receiving a commission from someone who walked past my desk and saw the sign I had about cards and asked me to make an A4 retirement card for a lady who likes golf and gardening and wanted a card to reflect this. I had never made a card this big before, so this was a real challenge. I hope they like it.

And then, lots of cards, mothers day, babies being born, my neices birthday etc....so many cards....That's about it for now, I have had a several xrays taken at hospital today and lots of blood tests (I'm not sure they can take THAT much in one go, boy did I feel faint, and now my arm is black and blue)-so I think I deserve a glass of wine and a bit of crafting (though I did sew quite a few yo-yo's to make into brooches later whilst waiting at the hospital)!

Happy crafting

Li'l Pidge

An overdue catchup and a bit of a rant

Good grief where has the time gone? I have been slack in updating the blog, I have no idea where the past week or so have gone! Is this the first sign of getting old (the grey hair and sagging boobs don’ count!)? Does that mean I need to start crocheting myself a hat (ooh, now that is another craft I can have a go at! As they say, every cloud has a silver lining!!) and get a couple dozen cats-nah! I am struggling too much with knitting to take up another hobby and I just don’t ‘get’ cats!

Which brings me to the next point (was there ever a first?), after the snow of Monday had cleared (I really cannot remember a time in the past 20 years when we have had so much snow, or when it has stayed around for so long-I even had the chance to go to the local churchyard, which looked so pretty in a foot of snow, instead of making a snow angel I made a snow bat!) Wednesday saw me another year older, but sadly, no wiser (wider yes, just not wiser).

Just look at our local graveyard-so much snow!

I have a rule that I won’t work on my Birthday (or lift my finger if I can get away with it!) and the day started off to a great start with my pressies! My lovely OH got me a couple of CD’s (including Sisters of Mercy for those long ago, but not forgot

ten (its only the recent past I have trouble remembering!) heady goth days (ah, rum and black and the taste of Diamond White cider and snake bites), a knitted scary rabbit keyring and a few other bits and bobs (and the promise of a shopping spree for crafting stuff in the near future!), my brother got me some gloves and a fantastic book on origami with illustrations by Rolf Harris, and a brooch we saw on our New Year trip to Whitstable of a hand with chains

and a tin heart (its as odd as it sounds but really nice). I also got some fab jewellery making kit from my sister-in-law and some great gifts from the girls at our weekly craft get together, not to mention some from the CB forum! So a big thankyou to everyone.

These are just a few ofmy crafty gifts

We had a lovely day out, Lebanese for lunch, and a trip to Café Maitreya (previous winner of Observer Food magazine best vegetarian restaurant) in the evening, all brought crashing round my ears the next day after a trip to the dentist! The tooth I have been having untold hassles with for the past 4 months (root abscess, root fillings etc) now needs pulling out! Another one! What the ****. The past couple of years have seen me having to pay for SO much dental work. Arrggggg…I was obviously not meant to have a holiday this year either (last years savings funded my first fixed bridge)-life sometimes sucks, I know it could be so much worse, but it does take some effort to pick yourself up after each knock back.

Whinge over…….

Or maybe not……..twats in small hatchbacks with oversized exhausts, people who let their dog foul and then don’t clear it up, over packaged food products (I actually saw a single pepper shrink wrapped with a plastic label attached in Morrisons!!)…….oh dear, it’s true, 38 years old and now a grumpy old woman! Hurrah, I now have a license to moan (not that I ever needed one before!).

Anyway, back to the reason for life…crafting!

With so much to get clear in my head I decided to take a days annual leave and craft (that always clears my head and gets things in perspective). 6 hours later I have made a dress! I had no pattern and it was a basic pull over the head design, but still a dress. Mind you, even with a belt it looked like a sack,, a sassy red and black silky sack, but a sack none the less (so, that’ll be made into a cushion cover then-I think I am going to end up with a few of those) then….

…Dah, Dah, DAh (spooky music in background). the dreaded sewing machine killer (yep, that’ll be me) struck again.How many times has this killer struck? Nothing had been heard about her for many years, so the machines thought it was safe to venture back out, but no! In a sudden and unprovoked attack the count mayjust have reached No 3!

There I was, innocently make my masterpiece (I didn’t know about the ‘sack’ until I tried it on later) when the machine seized, made a growling noise (nearly banged on next doors wall thinking it was their dog) then chugged a bit, before, PING! A piece of metal fell out from inside!! I have NO idea what it is or what it does, but a quick bang on the table top got it working again-only time will tell if its terminal or whether the killer will strike again…

Anyway, I also received this months ATC from the CB Forum, this months were from CraftyCharl100487 and Clara Cluck-thankyou they are both lovely (gotta love a bit of fantasy).

I also made pressies for my brothers bithday and my family in New Zealand. The cuff links are for my brother and are made from vintage leather buttons, the ear rings for my cousin are of course plectrums, the brooch is for my aunt (same as the one posted previously) and the keepsake book was for my mum and dad, I hope they like them.

Well, I did say it was an overdue catch up!

I have also been making a few cards again:

Phew, I think that's enough for now!

Anyway, Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge

Sick to the back teeth, but not of crafting

Sometimes, you have to admit that life sucks. You get good weeks, and you get bad. The past week was a bad-un. My hands, knees and feet have been hurting like hell and to top it all the temporary filling my dentist put in when my root infection cleared up is still in as the dentist cancelled and it is now all swollen again and so painful I cannot touch it-so lets just say when you are feeling pretty damned grotty, its hard to pick yourself up and get on with things, yes I know you have to, work demands, home etc etc, yadda yadda. But, even then, it still boils down to the fact that sometimes life sucks! But as we all know, the wonderful world of craft allows us to express ourselves and to a degree lose ourselves, even if only for 15 mins to make a card.

So, with this all in mind, I have managed to get a lot of crafting done. Some of it I cant publish yet as they are for pressies, but even then I managed to get a lot done.

I also got my prize for the New Year Card Challenge on the CB Forum, from the lovely Jane, in the post this week, a lovely array of paper crafting products which I am going to love playing around with.

I made another of one of my favourites this week-shaker cards! A couple of friends have just had their first child, so this was the perfect excuse I need to get out the acetate and the micro beads.

I am such a sucker for a shaker card, a bit of noise and movement in what can be a boring everyday object is always a bonus (just think of John Travolta in a 1970s white suit!!)

So, in an effort to try and forget my woes (lets not even go into the gas bill that came this weekend-I know its been cold, but I didnt realise that I signed up with Dick Turpin utilities!) I threw myself into making valentine cards, using glitter glue, acetate and some light airdrying clay to make heart shaped lock and keys.

Gotta love a bit of embossing

oh, and there's the acetate and glitter glue....
and the airdrying clay (I am loving this card...big hint to my OH!!)

Then I decided that I need a bit of bling in my life to cheer me up so I made myself a large statement piece, of a lovely green wooden and pearl ring

I dread to think what I must look like, so far I have made a skirt, bag, jewelry and a scarf-well, at least I know that no-one else will be wearing the same!

And to top it all I have made some fabric brooches, a few of which I have managed to sell, so that is even more money to charity (but now I need to make some more to replace them!).

Well, I did say I needed cheering up!
Then to top it all, I decided that I would try something new. I made a handbag. I made the whole thing in 2 hours, including cutting, interfacing and stitching and even adding a magnetic closure. I lined it and added a gussetted bottom (ooer) so that I could cram even more goodies into it when out shopping! This time I am really pleased, as I am a bit of a handbag fetish, and they arent very cheap-so this is a great alternative!














I am loving this material-so far I have made an apron, skirt and bag from it! I am SO proud of this, especially since I bothered lining it also (as I tend to cut corners when its something for myself). My OH said that when I went into the office in the morning I was SO down, in pain and generally ready to give up, and when he came home he didnt know what to expect. What he wasnt expecting was a flurry of activity, with scissors, ironing of interfacing, sewing machine etc all happening at speed and a happy me!! I would say that crafting is cheaper than therapy, but as any of you know, for every bit of re-purposed wall paper and old junk we use, there are expensive stamps, glitters, flocks and a whole host of lovelyness in the craft shops (as well as craft fairs)!
As I said, its been a busy week. Yes, it has taken me longer than usual to make some things, but the main thing is that I have spend time doing something I enjoy, and what is life if you cant have a pice of happiness now and again (and to spread this around, I also sent out a few random acts of kindness to some of the ladies on the CB fourm, well karma is always good to stay in the right side of!!).

Anyway, off to play in the craft room.
Happy crafting

Li'l Pidge x